Plas Dinas Country House

In many a country house hotel the owners claim they will treat you like royalty but at Plas Dinas they don’t need to, you’ll feel pretty regal anyway staying in the house where Princess Margaret spent many a cosy weekend. The Princess, you see, married into the Armstrong Jones family who took possession of this lovely mid-seventeenth century Snowdonia bolthole from the late 1800s and still used it as their country retreat right through to the 1960s and 1970s. These days the hotel (as it became in the 1990s) has been lovingly brought into the 21st century while losing none of its charm (you’ll still find family portraits hanging and the furniture fits the period of the house beautifully). Nine individually styled bedrooms ooze period luxury but leaving them in the morning is worth the effort – the local Caernarfon sausages served at breakfast are a treat.

Plas Dinas is situated 2 miles outside the ancient town of Caernarfon. Travelling south along the A487 from Caernarfon towards Porthmadog you go through the village of Bontnewydd. You will pass the Newborough Arms pub on your left. We are a third of a mile past the pub, on the brow of the hill on your right hand side. The hotel is clearly signposted from either direction. As you enter the driveway you will pass the Lodge on the left and continue down the tree lined drive for around half a mile until you reach the hotel.